How to invoice a venue for a gig, and get paid on time
An invoice for a gig needs your name or band name, the venue's name and the date, a one-line description of what you did, the amount, when it's due, and how to pay you. Send the deposit invoice the day you book the gig, not the week before you play it — waiting until the last minute is how you end up performing for a venue that has already forgotten it owes you money.
What actually goes on it
Keep it to one page. A gig invoice needs:
- Your name or band name, address, phone, email
- The venue's name, the contact person you dealt with, and their address
- An invoice number (just 001, 002, 003 — you don't need anything fancier)
- The invoice date and the gig date, if they're different
- One description line: "Live performance, June 14, [Venue name], two 45-minute sets"
- The amount, in the currency you agreed
- Payment terms — due on receipt, or net 7, or net 14
- How you want to be paid — e-transfer to an email address, or cheque payable to a specific name
Don't itemize things the venue never asked for, like travel time or gear rental, unless you agreed to those charges before the show. An invoice that surprises someone with new line items is the fastest way to get a payment held up while they "check with the owner."
Deposit vs balance
For anything over a couple hundred dollars, split it. Fifty percent deposit on booking, fifty percent on the day of the show or within a set number of days after. This isn't about distrust — it protects you if the gig gets cancelled two days out, and it protects the venue from paying in full for a band that never shows.
Say the gig is $800. Invoice $400 the day you confirm the booking, with terms like "due within 7 days to hold the date." Invoice the remaining $400 the night of the show, or email it the next morning with terms of net 7. Make the deposit non-refundable if you cancel less than a set number of days out — write that in the terms, not just in a text message you sent weeks earlier.
The mistake to avoid: invoicing the full amount only after the gig is done. You've played the show with no deposit, no leverage if they cancel same-day, and no cash in hand to cover mileage or a rented amp. If a venue pushes back on a deposit, that's useful information about how the rest of the relationship will go.
GST/HST if you're in Canada
If your total revenue from all your self-employed activity was under $30,000 over the last four consecutive calendar quarters, you're a small supplier. You don't register for GST/HST, you don't charge it, and you don't put a tax line on the invoice at all — not even "HST included." Just the flat fee.
Once your revenue crosses $30,000 in a rolling four-quarter window, you're required to register within 29 days of the day you crossed the threshold, and from that point you charge GST/HST on every invoice and remit it. You can also register voluntarily before you hit $30,000 if it suits you — some musicians do this to claim input tax credits on gear — but it's optional until the threshold, not before.
Don't guess at this by putting a made-up tax number on an invoice because it looks more professional. An invoice with a tax line but no real registration is worse than one with no tax line at all.
Chasing late payment without burning the venue
Most late payments are someone forgetting, not someone refusing. Treat the first follow-up that way. A few days after the due date:
"Hi [Name], just checking in on invoice #032 for the June 14 show at [Venue] — it was due June 21. Let me know if it slipped past, or if you need anything else from me to get it processed."
No apology for asking, no urgency in the subject line. If nothing happens after another week to ten days, follow up again, and this time reference the terms directly: "This is a second reminder on invoice #032, now 16 days past the due date. Happy to resend if the original got lost." Only mention a late fee if you actually stated one on the invoice — inventing one after the fact just makes you look unsure of your own terms.
What not to do: skip straight to a terse one-line demand, or go quiet for a month and then send an angry message. Venues rebook acts that are easy to deal with, and a calm, specific reminder gets paid faster than a vague or hostile one — because it gives the person on the other end exactly what they need to fix it without a conversation.
If you're putting this system together for the first time, it's worth having the invoice itself generated from the same place as your other paperwork rather than built from scratch each time. Roadshow's paid plans let you bill a venue, mark an invoice paid, and pull a year-end summary for your accountant, with no cut taken from what you're paid.